compartments of which are represented in plates 111, rv, and At C was the fragment of another pavement, which is given in plate vii. At D part of a third was discovered, of a coarser kind, the tessere being cubes of an inch: it had no other pattern than stripes of red and white,

PLATE III-Represents what remains of the compartment at the west end of the larger Mosaic pavement above mentioned. This compartment has originally consisted of a circle, eighteen feet six inches in diameter, divided into eight smaller compartments by radii proceeding from a small circle at the centre. This small circle

contains a figure of Orpheus, with the Phrygian bonnet on his head, playing on his lyre, and attended by animals; a subject fre-. quently represented on works of this kind. In the smaller compartments above mentioned, of which two only remain entire, are represented various birds and beasts. The circles and radii are formed by a single twisted guilloche of three colours, bluish-grey, red, and white: the larger circle is inclosed within a square border of a zigzag pattern, bluish-grey and white; each of its spandrils appears to have been filled with a large head, having a red cross on each side; only one of these heads remains. Among the figures of animals which remain may be distinguished an elephant, a bear, and the fragment of a boar.

This pavement is composed of tesseræ, for the most part cubes of about half an inch, of different colours, red, white, bluish-grey, dark-blue, and several shades of brown the red, the dark-blue, and the brown, are of a composition; the grey and white are natural productions, the former being a kind of slate, and the latter of a hard calcareous substance, called calk, found near the spot. They are laid in mortar, on a stratum of coarse terras about six inches thick, beneath which is a stratum of coarse rubbish; but this pavement does not appear to have had the same regular strata which usually occur in other works of the same kind in this country; nor was there any appearance of subterraneous flues. Very slight traces of the walls remain round the pavement, only a small portion of the foundation being now left, from which these walls appear to have been formed of flint and calk, and to have been about two feet six inches wide.

• PLATE IV.—The central compartment of the pavement is here figured, consisting of a circle fifteen feet three inches in diameter, inclosed within a border ornamented with a braid of four colours, dark-grey, red, light-brown, and white. The four spandrils are filled by figures of Titans, whose lower extremities end in serpents, and whose arms support the circle. This circle, and the radii by which it is divided into four equal parts, are formed by a single twisted guilloche. In the centre of these four compartments are small circles, containing Bacchanalian figures, on a dark-blue ground, on either side of which are Tritons, Nereids, Cupids, and marine monsters, on a red ground. Within these are figures of Genii dancing round a basket of flowers The centre of this division of the pavement is unfortunately destroyed: it is most probable that the radü proceeded from a smaller circle near the centre, as in the compart

ment of plate 111, and as they are represented in the restored design, plate vi. The general effect of this compartment is different from any that I have seen; its chief peculiarity being the red ground, which was much used by the Romans for their paintings. Nereids and marine monsters on a red ground were found painted on some of the walls of Herculaneum.

PLATE V-Represents the compartment at the east end of the large pavement, which is more entire than any other part of this work. The subject is a chariot-race, performed by four bige, which appear to be driven round a platform in the centre, at the extremities of which are the metæ. The chariots are attended by two horsemen, one of whom is dismounted to assist a driver, who has lost a wheel, and is falling backwards. The saddle of this dismounted horseman has a high peak, a fashion which prevailed in the time of the lower empire.

The platform is quite plain, and contains none of the temples, altars, columns, or statues, which are commonly seen in ancient works of art representing the Circensian games: nor are the drivers distinguished by the colours of the four several factions of the cirIt is probable that this was designed for the representation of a provincial chariot race, where the distinction above alluded to might not have been observed.

cus.

PLATE VI. The general design of the large pavement restored, the parts supplied being included within dotted lines. There is authority for the restoration of the greater part of the figures, and of all the ornaments, except those in the middle of the central compartment. From the inferior manner in which the mechanical part of this pavement is executed, it seems to have been the work of a late age, though parts of the design are by no means in a bad taste. is not indeed improbable that it might have been restored from a more ancient one fallen to decay. The greater part of this pavement is likely to be preserved, admiral Shirley having erected a building over the most perfect and interesting parts of it.

It

'PLATE VII-Shews the fragment of another Mosaic pavement, extending nineteen feet from the wall on the south side of the larger one above described. It appears to have been of considerable size, as the rudus on which it was laid extends twenty-three feet from the eastern extremity of the fragment. Channels were dug in several directions from these four pavements, with a view to further discoveries, but without success: it is probable, nevertheless, that these are the remains of some large building, though the other parts are entirely destroyed.

Fig. 2, a piece of alabaster, having military trophies rudely cut on it, dug up several years ago near the site of the pavements, andnow in the possession of Mr. Bennet, of Horkstow."

We warmly recommend this magnificent production of the press to men of opulence and taste,

ART. XIV.-A general System of Nature, through the three grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals; systematically divided into their several Classes, Orders, Genera, Species, and Varieties, with their Habitations, Manners, Economy, Structure, and Peculiarities. Translated from Gmelin's last Edition of the celebrated Systema Natura, by Sir Charles Linné. Amended and enlarged by the Improvements and Discoveries of later Naturalists and Societies; with appropriate Copper-plates. By William Turton, M.D. Author of the Medical Glossary. 4 Vols: 8vo. 21. 10s. Lackington and Co. 1802.

NATURAL history is now so generally studied, that the less learned reader must receive with pleasure every means which can facilitate his inquiries; and for this reason we examined with considerable satisfaction the Litchfield translation of the Vegetable System. Dr. Turton's design we must consequently approve of; as we do also of its execution; for, so far as we have been able to compare this work with Gmelin's edition of the System of Nature, the descriptions are translated with sufficient accuracy.

In systematic arrangement, the student has this peculiar advana tage, that by immediately arriving at the name, the whole of its known qualities are immediately displayed to him: but without a systematic classification, he wanders in obscurity and uncertainty, and must collect the whole of its habits and peculiarities, before he can ascertain the individual he is examining.

The traveler, for example, who wishes to collect the more curious subjects of natural history, finds a bird, whose name, habits, and economy, he is desirous of investigating: from its conie, sharppointed bill, slender legs, and divided toes, he finds that it belongs to the order Passeres; and from its thick, strong, convex bill, with the lower mandible bent in at the edges, and the tongue abruptly cut off at the end, he refers it to the genus Loxia or Grosbeak; and running his eye over the specific differences, he immediately determines it, from its exactly answering the specific character" body above brown, beneath yellowish white; crown and breast pale yellow; chin brown,"-to be the Philippine Grosbeak (loxia Philip pina;) a little bird which he finds is a native of the Philippine islands, and endowed by nature with instinctive notions of preservation and comfort, nearly approaching to human intelligence; that it constructs a curious nest with the long fibres of plants or dry grass, and suspends it by a kind of cord, nearly half an ell long, from the end of a slender branch of a tree, that it may be inaccessible to snakes, and safe from the prying intrusion of the numerous monkeys which inhabit those regions: at the end of this cord is a gourd-shaped nest, divided into three apartments, the first of which is occupied by the male, the second by the female, and the third containing the young; and in the first apartment, where the male keeps watch while the female is hatching, is placed, on one side, a

little tough clay, and on the top of this clay is fixed a glow-worm, to afford its inhabitants light in the night time.

That the English student may be put in possession of this vast treasure, comprehending and illustrating all nature through the three kingdoms of animals, vegetables, and minerals; I have undertaken a translation from the last edition of the Systema Nature of Linné, by Gmelin, amended and enlarged by the improvements and additions of later naturalists.

The expediency of this translation has long been acknowledged, and the want of it often lamented; and it has been a principal view of the editor to deliver it in as intelligible and as useful a form as the nature of such a work will admit. The Linnéan terms are rendered as nearly as possible to the idiom of the English language; and a general explanatory dictionary of such as are peculiarly appropriate to the science, is affixed to the last volume. And for the conveniency of such as wish to become acquainted with the productions of their own country, the different subjects of natural history, hitherto found in Great-Britain, will be pointed out by an asterisk.

In the ornithological department, I have been chiefly assisted by the works of Dr. Latham; in entomology, by the last edition of the System of Fabricius; in that of vegetables, by the Species Plantarum of the learned and diligent Willdenow; and in all by the accurate Dr. Shaw, in his elegant and beautiful publication, the Naturalist's Miscellany.

The numerous synonyms and references I have omitted; as they would so considerably have enlarged the bulk of the work, without adding a proportionate value. The various subjects of natural his tory are so accurately described, that no doubt can remain as to the individual.' P. vi.

It is with regret, that, in a work of such labour and expense, we are compelled to blame any thing relating to it; but the omission of the references and synonyms is a serious objection.

By arriving at the name,' the whole of its known qualities are said to be displayed.' This would be true if the references and synonyms were added; but in the present work it is only in a very few instances, as in the loxia Philippina, that such information is subjoined; and it can be merely obtained in other cases, which are very rare, where the Linnæan name is the same with that affixed by authors who describe the properties and manners of the substance or animal. It has been the uniform answer to those who call the disciples of the Linnæan school mere nomenclators, that, by this mean, the species is ascertained, and the qualities, described by more copious natural-historians, thus limited to a given animal. The omission of the synonyms destroys the force of this reply. We see too with some regret a natural-historian repeat the idle tale of the glow-worm being affixed to the nest, in order to give light; he ought to have known that it gives light only by its own vital powers, and generally by some exertion. The obligations are equivocally introduced, as if the author were personally indebted for their communications. We find, however, the additions and amend

ments so few, that the thanks might have been spared, if it had not been necessary to notice the names of the different naturalists. We are surprised that he has overlooked La Cépède and Sonnini. He ought, if he had introduced any amendments, to have been much more copious in the articles added, and the authors consulted.

The

The first volume contains the mammalia and fishes, the second and third the insects, and the fourth the worms. British species are distinguished by an asterisk.

ART. XV.-Observations on the medical and domestic Management of the Consumptive; on the Powers of Digitalis Purpurea; and on the Cure of Scrophula. By Thomas Beddoes, M.D. 8vo. 75. Boards. Longman and Rees. 1801.

DR. Beddoes again rings the changes on cows' breath, digitalis, and sometimes cicuta and mercury. They answer his purpose; and he should be contented.

In saccum gestit nummos demittere, posthac

Securus.

We have said, and we repeat it, that we distrust his facts,-and for the best reasons. We have more than once witnessed the dying groans of patients whose cures are recorded, at a very little distance from the period of publication. These cures have been continually repeated, without a doubt or a suspicion. We have employed the digitalis and the opium-we have neither been rash nor weak enough to give the hemlock and mercury-with the obvious effects which Dr. Beddoes describes; but without the amendment in the complaint, which he leads us so confidently to expect and we can add, in the most solemn manner, that, though we have seen the foxglove continued for months in a full dose, notwithstanding that it seemed somewhat to check the consumptive complaints, we have in no one instance seen it produce a radical or a permanently good effect. An anonymous writer' (he has said) 'is good for nothing as a witness.' We must reply, however, that he is a much better one than a prejudiced writer--much better than one whose prejudices and their source are so obvious. If the present writer be for a moment anonymous, Dr. Beddoes should know that he, as well as the journal in which he writes, has a reputation equal at least to his own; that neither would be compromised; and that there is no motive of interest or fame to induce the author, whoever he may be, to oppose what he thinks to be true. Let Dr. Beddoes look to those whom he has reason to know have been reviewers; and let him then say, whether, in their respective departments, there are superior characters? Because they were not known at the time, was what they said disregarded? Now they are known, is it more highly valued? and are periodical journals conducted with less ability than when men of the first character among those